For the complete report including table with statistics see: country report Sweden 2020-2022.

Kvinnor och matematik –

Women in mathematics Sweden 2020 – 2022

Carina Geldhauser, Sara Maad Sasane, 

Irina Pettersson, Sofia Tirabassi

1 Women mathematicians at Swedish higher education institutions

The major universities in Sweden are Luleå, Umeå, Uppsala, Stockholm (U, KTH), Linköping, Göteborg (U, Chalmers) and Lund. The career path consists of the steps PhD, postdoc, tenure track position (biträdande lektor, forskarassistent), senior lecturer (universitetslektor), associate professor (docent), professor/full professor. 

We are currently collecting information about the statistics of female mathematicians in Sweden, and expect to have a clearer picture about the situation later this year. For the time being, we give examples from Chalmers (Gothenburg) and Lund University displayed in the table in the complete report. This data is from 2020. The job title Biträdande Professor does not exist in Lund, it is a mid-way to professorship which requires less supervised PhD theses than a full professor, and can be obtained also on a teaching-track position. 

2 Overview of the network “Kvinnor och matematik”

“Kvinnor och matematik” means “women and mathematics” in Swedish. This was the name of a network which existed in the 1990s, and which hosted biannual conferences.

To underline this historical continuity and the ongoing challenges, we kept the name when reviving the network in 2020. 

“Kvinnor och matematik” has been and is currently an informal network, which means that we do not have a formal legal structure, which relieves us from administrative duties, financial reports and so on. We fund our activities through our local institutions and encourage our members to be members of European Women in Mathematics. 

We have currently 43 members on our mailing list “wim – women in mathematical sciences”. The mailing list is administered by Sofia Tirabassi and Carina Geldhauser and hosted by Deutsches Forschungsnetz (https://www.listserv.dfn.de). On the mailing list we have only women mathematicians with a PhD degree, which was a conscious choice in the beginning, to provide a safe space for discussion and keep the administrative effort of the mailing list manageable. 

3 Activities 

Meetings 

In 2020 and 2021, we met twice on zoom for an informal exchange. In 2022, we had planned to have an in-person country coordinator meeting at Chalmers in January, which we had to cancel due to the pandemic situation. In June 2022, the country coordinators had a meeting at Lund University, where we discussed future plans and activities. 

Events 

In January 2022, we planned to have a day of talks at Chalmers university, which we had to cancel due to the pandemic situation. In June, we celebrated the 111th anniversary of the first woman to receive a PhD in mathematics in Sweden, Louise Petrén, at Lund University. At the end of the day, a panel discussion with PhD students was organized, to encourage master’s students to consider PhD studies. 

Activities to include students

At Chalmers, Julie Rowlett organized some inspirational talks for students. At Lund University, we hosted regular women in mathematics evenings and career talks. In the framework of the mentorship program at Lund, we provide support for our female students in their application for different fellowship programmes and student conferences. To further being able to support students within the mentorship program, Sara Maad Sasane and Carina Geldhauser participated in the Train the trainer workshop for mentoring women in math which took place on March 22 and 23, 2022, in Heidelberg.

Statistics

During the Spring 2022, we have contacted the biggest universities in Sweden gathering statistics about women in mathematics and the gender equality work at the universities. 

Engagement of undergrads

An undergraduate student (Tyra Samenius) reached out to us and asked how she could be of help.  With her aid we translated the poster “Women in Mathematics” into Swedish. We are going to try to find other activities in order to engage her and other undergraduate students.

4 Funding

To our best knowledge, there is no national funding for professional bodies in Sweden, neither the Swedish Mathematical Society (Svenska Matematikersamfundet, SMS), Nationalkomittén för matematik, nor us, kvinnor och matematik, receive external funding. Therefore, the Swedish Mathematical Society does not fund us either. We fund our activities through local university funds for gender equality, like the GENIE at Chalmers or the ELLIIT gender funds at Lund-Linköping. To inform ELLIIT researchers about our activities, Sara Maad Sasane gave a presentation at the ELLIIT annual workshop at Lund University October 26, 2021.